Bill Wood: Are’s we smart enough to develop an emergency warning app?
The hurricane and fire season this year strongly show the need for a reliable disaster alert/alarm system. Particularly with the wine country fires, where dozens of people are missing, it demands the genius of America to develop a system that really works.
In over a year and half, I received one cell phone Amber Alert with no audio. I bet there were more. There are alerts broadcast on the radio that start with an annoying squawk and a test message followed by more squawking. Useless!
Programmable road signs announce problems; which is good for those on the road. There are very few people who do not have access to a cell phone or computer. We need an app for phones and computers that will override the mute button and give us an alert and wake-up signal plus the message describing the threat. An additional plus would turn the thing on for those thrifty folks trying to their batteries by powering down.
Bill Wood, Oakdale
This story was originally published October 13, 2017 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Bill Wood: Are’s we smart enough to develop an emergency warning app?."